From the movie "The Natural" - Courtesy Larry Klug
The mayor who had his inspectors condemn the Bisons beloved Offerman Stadium so that he could use the land to build a high school made speeches to support the
Bisons who were now "continuing on as a Minor League baseball team" at War Memorial
Stadium. The mayor came out saying that 1961 would be ushering in a "whole
new era of Bisons Baseball". The fans however saw right though all the propaganda,
knowing the politics of how their long time beloved ballpark had been taken
away from them and now they were forced to watch baseball in a makeshift football
stadium... worse yet as a Minor League team again and not as a Major League
franchise. Just like the Bills had gone through not being accepted by the NFL
and having to go dark for 10 very long years before finally having to join the
renegade AFL in 1960... MLB had a stigma (for whatever reason) against Buffalo
as well. This made coming here to War Memorial Stadium ever more difficult ...
knowing that this city was to remain a Triple-A city and never getting the chance
to become a true Major League town.